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A Portuguese Version of the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale – Short Form

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2015

Joana Nunes Patrício*
Affiliation:
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL) (Portugal)
M. Clara Barata
Affiliation:
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL) (Portugal)
M. Manuela Calheiros
Affiliation:
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL) (Portugal)
João Graça
Affiliation:
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL) (Portugal)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joana Nunes Patrício, CIS-IUL (sala 2w17). Av. Das Forças Armadas. Edf. ISCTE. 1649–026. Lisboa (Portugal). E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Research consistently demonstrates that positive student-teacher relationships are fundamental to the healthy development of all students. However, we lack a Portuguese-validated measure of student-teacher relationships. In this article we present the adaptation procedures and the psychometric properties of a Portuguese version of the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale – Short Form (Pianta, 1992). Five hundred and thirty five teachers from 127 schools completed the STRS-SF. The results demonstrate that this adapted version of the STRS-SF has good psychometric properties, namely high reliability (α = .84 to .87) and expected construct validity, which were tested through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (χ2/df = 1.65, CFI = .96, GFI = .93, RMSEA = 0.05). This study also showed that the correlations of student-teacher relationship with students' demographic variables are consistent with the evidence in the literature about this construct. Finally, the study indicated that female teachers reported more closeness, t(530) = 4.06, p < .001 and better overall student-teacher relationships, t(530) = 4.90, p < .001. In the discussion, we analyze the implications of these results.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2015 

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